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Colophon, 2016

Individual posts are edited in Markdown
format, using the Mou editor on a
Macintosh. They
are translated to HTML via a shell script that does some
reformatting and vets the output using Tidy. Images are edited,
when necessary, using Acorn and NetPBM. Autodesk Graphic is used for
vector graphics.

Most of the not-quite dynamic sidebar content is
produced by really small Python scripts running from cron,
generating tiny HTML fragments that are transcluded into the pages
at rendertime. This allows the flexibility of dynamic page
generation with the benefits of static performance. More discussion
of this technique
here.

Tue, 09 Mar 2004

Well, for whatever reason I can't post a comment in response to
this post. (Er -- request for comment?
For some, I suppose...)

The further you get into the comments, the clearer it becomes that,
despite the inclusion of a mention of taking the process to the
IETF,
there's a fair bit of waffling on committing to what that
process would truly entail: entrusting the process to an
independent body and relinquishing "veto power."

I agree with Ross Rader's take: "Blogging needs real standards
if it is going to survive. Merging the ATOM feed spec into the RSS
feed spec using an informal methodology won't give us what we need
and will only serve to create a third variation that we can use to
confuse users with."

I'd like to see some user-focused compromise, but the ground rules can't all be set by one party. I'll be interested in seeing some iteration of this proposal that starts with a little less ground defensively staked off.

A circus foreman was making the rounds inspecting the big top when
a scrawny little man entered the tent and walked up to him. “Are you the
foreman around here?” he asked timidly. “I’d like to join your circus; I
have what I think is a pretty good act.”
The foreman nodded assent, whereupon the little man hurried over to
the main pole and rapidly climbed up to the very tip-top of the big top.
Drawing a deep breath, he hurled himself off into the air and began flapping
his arms furiously. Amazingly, rather than plummeting to his death the little
man began to fly all around the poles, lines, trapezes and other obstacles,
performing astounding feats of aerobatics which ended in a long power dive
from the top of the tent, pulling up into a gentle feet-first landing beside
the foreman, who had been nonchalantly watching the whole time.
“Well,” puffed the little man. “What do you think?”
“That’s all you do?” answered the foreman scornfully. “Bird
imitations?”